MJOLNIR Quirks
by silverx10
Summary: The survivors of the Pillar of Autumn have already landed on the surface of HALO. Master Chief has begun to notice strange happenings with the MJOLNIR armor. Will he figure out what's going on with it before it's too late?
1. Quirks...

"Pickles! Pickles and jelly beans!" the Grunt yelled, looking around for its dropped plasma pistol.

"What… the… hell?" Master Chief asked himself, watching the Grunt in ultimate disbelief.

"Pickles and jelly beans! Pickles and jelly beans!" The Grunt yelled again, still searching for the weapon.

__

Hold on a minute, Master Chief, Cortana started, _There seems to be a malfunction in your armor's translation matrices. Attempting to repair the error now…_

"You'd better hurry that up," Master Chief Started, "I'd like to know what this worthless thing is babbling about."

"Pickles and fear!" The Grunt yelled, finally finding its weapon. But it was too late—Master Chief had already unloaded an entire clip of ammunition into the defenseless thing by the time it reached the weapon.

"Don't they understand just how annoying they are?" Master Chief asked; obviously annoyed by the time he'd just wasted, "Cortana, where is the nearest ventral hatch?"

__

I'm marking it off on your heads-up. All you've gotta do is just follow that, and we should make it off just fine.

With that, Master Chief took off running in the direction of the nav point that was flashing… somewhat violently… on his HUD.

"In a hurry?" Master Chief asked Cortana, with a smirk spread on his face.

__

Let's just say, Cortana started, _That I really don't like these Covenant dropships… Too many unknowns._

Right as she finished her sentence, Master Chief bumped right into a Grunt that had been sleeping in the middle of a corridor.

"Look! More enemies! Here!" the Grunt yelled, getting the attention of two plasma-sabre-wielding Elite that had been inspecting cargo containers that were being transported from the surface of HALO back to the Truth and Reconciliation

__

That… can't be good, Cortana told Master Chief, as the Grunt ran to join its taller counterparts.

"Hmmmmmmmmmm… I guess I probably should've reloaded before we left that Grunt back there," Master Chief said to Cortana, looking at the flashing display on his HUD:

_MA5B Assault Rifle: Ammunition Depleted._

Plasma Rifle: 75% Charge

Over-Shield: 12% Charge

Active Camouflage: Inactive [Insufficient Energy]

NAV Point: 67M

"Hello there, gentlemen," Master Chief started, "And how would you be today?" He asked, reaching for the plasma rifle that he had holstered on his back. As the Grunt started to reply, one of the Elite grabbed it and threw it backward, squealing in pain.

__

Ouch, Cortana started, _I'd hate to be part of this… "family."_

The Elite were quickly closing in on Master Chief, and their plasma sabres were glowing violently. Without another thought, Master Chief pulled the plasma rifle from its holster and began firing upon the lead Elite. Luckily, the plasma rifle had an extremely helpful side effect: it stunned the targets for each shot fired. This gave Master Chief time to pull out one of the plasma grenades that he'd taken from the Grunt only minutes before.

As he maintained the fire on the Elite with the plasma rifle, he began fingering in the activation sequence to activate the grenade. He finished, and found the best target: the Grunt. It had just gotten back to its feet when Master Chief chucked the grenade at it.

"Aaaaaaaah! Get it off! Get if off!" the Grunt screamed, grabbing onto the leg of one of the Elite.

"Noooooooooooooooooo!" the Elite yelled, trying to pry the Grunt off of its leg, but to no avail.

Master Chief ducked behind one of the cargo containers just in time to hear the explosion, and see the two Elite go flying over-head and smash into a bulkhead.

__

Now that, Cortana started, _Was one hell of a fireworks display._

Master Chief nodded, and then picked himself up. He went over to one of the cargo containers and pried it open. Inside were energy cells—a LOT of energy cells. He decided to take this opportunity to reequip himself. He replaced the energy cells in the plasma rifle and went to replace the energy cell in his primary MJOLNIR power core.

__

Wait! Cortana yelled, _You can't just do that! Covenant energy cells may not be compatible with the MJOLNIR structure!_

"Well," Master Chief started, "That's a risk that I'm more than willing to take."

With that, he yanked the energy cell from the MJOLNIR armor, and for the first time since he'd been given the MJOLNIR armor, he felt weak. Without the energy cell to power the suit, he was limited to his basic human strengths—which were nothing to scoff at. He remembered quite well the Orbital Drop Shock-Trooper that he'd killed back in the boxing ring—and that was no small feat for anyone… period.

"Well," he started, "Here goes nothing."

He shoved the Covenant energy cell into the power core and all at once, the MJOLNIR armor seemed to come alive all on its own.

__

You see? Something is_ wrong_, Cortana started, _The suit is at least ten times more sensitive to your motion that it ever has been before._

"That's a minor problem in the long run," Master Chief replied, looking back at his HUD.

_MA5B Assault Rifle: Ammunition Restocked._

Plasma Rifle: 100% Charge

Over-Shield: 100% Charge

Active Camouflage: Inactive [Activate Y/N?]

NAV Point: 67M

"Cortana," Master Chief started, "Activate the active camouflage. I don't want anymore… hassle getting off this crate."

__

Acknowledged, Cortana answered, _Active camouflage active. I estimate that it'll deplete its charge in forty-five minutes._

"That's more time than I'll need. Thanks."

With that, he sped toward the NAV point. He watched as his HUD counted down to the final destination: _65M, 56M, 40M, 30M, 24M, 15M, 5M…_

"Almost there," Master Chief started, "Almost…"

Suddenly, the hatch began to seal, and he had to do something fast. So, with no other option in sight, he jumped through, and gashed a bit of the armor on a jagged edge. But he'd made it out of the ship, just in time to see it lifting back into the air to head back to the Truth and Reconciliation.

_WARNING: Active camouflage failure—energy cell damaged._

"Timing is everything, and I've just proven that." Master Chief said to Cortana.

__

I wouldn't be too sure of that, Master Chief, Cortana started, _Look._

As he looked at his motion tracker, he saw that there were two enormous anomalies, approximately two meters from his position. Hunters.

He lifted his head to look at the Hunters, and had a face full of fuel-rod cannon as he did so. They closed in on him, and raised their shields to charge—they were going to smash him flat. They began to charge. Faster and faster, until eventually, they hit their target—or did they? Master Chief had managed to maneuver around behind them. Before they could turn for another run, and without so much as another thought, his hands shot out and snapped the Hunters' spines, killing them instantaneously.

__

That was amazing! Cortana yelled, _How the hell did you do that?_

"I…" Master Chief started, "Don't know."

He looked down at his hands—they were trembling profusely. He had no idea what the hell was going on, but he had a hunch that it had something to do with the Covenant energy cell. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to tamper with alien technology in this specific situation.

"Echo 419," he started, "This is Master Chief, I'm in need of evac at my present location."

"Roger that, MC," a voice crackled over the commlink, "We're coming in for ya. Just hang tight."

"Acknowledged," Master Chief replied, "Master Chief over and out."


	2. A new threat...

"Master Chief," a voice said, "Master Chief, can you hear me?"

"Huh? What? Who is that?" Master Chief asked, opening is eyes from the long sleep aboard the Pelican.

"It's Keyes," the voice replied, "And things aren't looking too good. For us, OR you."

"What? What are you talking about?" Master Chief asked, sitting up.

"It seems that this… Covenant energy cell that you put into your armor has… created some power fluctuations throughout the entire MJOLNIR structure." Keyes replied, lifting the glowing energy cell.

"That's just great," Master Chief started, "And Cortana?"

"I'm just fine, Master Chief," Cortana said from a holotank that had been removed from the Pillar of Autumn crash site, "I'm glad you care so much."

Master Chief scratched the back of his head, feeling the stubble of a once full head of hair.

"So when can I expect to get my armor back, sir?" Master Chief asked, extremely impatient to get back to combat-ready status.

"Well, it's going to take a while for our techs to try and figure out how the hell to fix a lot of the hardware inside the armor… I'd say about three hours, give or take a few minutes. Not bad considering that everything was pretty much fried."

"Of course," Master Chief started, "I just feel… so weak… so naked."

At that, a smirk spread across Captain Keyes' face. He tried his hardest not to laugh, but under the circumstances, he couldn't help it—and burst out laughing.

"What are you laughing at, sir?" Master Chief asked, puzzled as to Captain Keyes' strange behavior.

"Well, we were unable to find you any suitable clothes, and well…" Captain Keyes trailed off, motioning for Master Chief to look at himself. He did, and found that he WAS naked.

"Sir, I apologize for the…"

"No need soldier. Don't worry—we'll have you back on the battlefield as soon as we can," Keyes said, placing a reassuring hand on Master Chief's shoulder, "Just hang tight."

With that, Keyes left the tent, and Master Chief was left alone to his thoughts, and with Cortana.

"Cortana, why didn't you tell me that I was…"

"Naked? Oh, I didn't want to spoil the surprise," Cortana answered, giving Master Chief a quick wink.

"So what happened to me back there? All I remember is requesting an evac, and then everything just went black."

"Well," Cortana started, "The next thing that I knew, you just… passed out, but your vitals remained steady, so I didn't think that there was anything to worry about."

"But?"

"But," Cortana began, with a grave look on her face, "When Foe Hammer reached our location, it seemed that your sub-conscious took over, and assaulted two of the marines that tried to help you aboard the Pelican."

"Oh my god," Master Chief replied, "Are they alright?"

"Well, they'll be in the infirmary for a few weeks—as most people with seven fractured ribs DO…"

"Seven fractured ribs? Please tell me that that was the extent of my rampage."

"Well…" Cortana started, trying to shield Master Chief from the news, "You attempted to destroy the Pelican itself. However, I was able to create an overload in the armor's primary power core, which pretty much, to say in the least, disabled you."

"And as usual, the freak with the augmentations suffers nothing more than a black-out," Master Chief replied, trying to hide the self-disgust.

"What? Hey, you listen to me! It wasn't your fault, and no permanent damage was done! Stop feeling sorry for yourself! There was nothing that you could have done!"

"Maybe not back there," Master Chief answered, "But there was something that I could have done back in that lab… Back when my squad was getting those augmentations… I could have said something."

"Augmentations?" Cortana asked, "There was nothing that you could have done about those, either! Dr. Halsey would have continued with them whether you wanted it or not! Even if she didn't want to continue, herself."

"That's what I keep telling myself," Master Chief replied, "But for some reason, I can't seem to believe it."

With that, he lay down on the makeshift cot and drifted to sleep, trying to find a sanctuary from the stress that had just rained down upon him in the past few moments.

"Master Chief," Captain Keyes started, "Master Chief—wake up. Your MJOLNIR armor is repaired, and we've replaced the power cell, with 100% authentic human technology."

"Excellent," Master Chief answered, "Let's get it on, then."

Captain Keyes nodded, and helped Master Chief to his feet, and then led him back to the munitions tent where the armor was waiting for him.

"Master Chief is ready to be re-integrated with the armor, gentlemen," Captain Keyes started, "Let's make this as quickly as possible, as I need him to go on a recon mission."

Master Chief shot Keyes a quick look at the mention of a recon mission. That's just what he needed to get his mind off of… things.

It took a little over two hours to get the armor back onto Master Chief, but this was commonplace, as the armor had many complex connections that had to be made. Finally, when the time came, Cortana was re-inserted back into the neural matrices that had become her home.

"So about this recon mission," Master Chief started, "What's involved, exactly?"

"Let's just say," Keyes replied, "That we're going to learn just a bit more about those damned aliens today."

A smile spread across Master Chief's face, but it was shielded by the gold-tinted visor of his armor's helmet.

"Cortana," Keyes started, "You're going to be a big part of this mission."

__

Oh? Cortana asked, _How so?_

"You're going to help Master Chief commandeer one of the Covenant dropships, and bring it back here, where we'll dissect it—bulkhead by bulkhead."

__

To what ends, sir? Cortana asked.

"To the ends of hopefully getting off of this damned thing," Keyes started, "Whatever the hell it is."

__

Understood, Cortana replied, _But where are we going to find a Covenant dropship waiting to be… "commandeered"?_

"I'm glad you asked," Keyes answered, "This… is where you'll find it."

With that, he activated a holopanel that had been taken from deep within HALO. As the picture fizzled into view, Master Chief was able to distinguish the primary base-camp from a large body of water that was due south of the mountains that surrounded it.

"Here," Keyes started, pointing to the body of water, "Is where the Covenant are hiding their dropship."

"I… Don't understand sir," Master Chief replied, "I see no ships on the holopanel."

"This is because the Covenant have hidden it approximately ten feet below the surface. The last scout that we sent out confirmed that there was activity in the water-mass, however—implying that there's something big going on down there."

"Understood. So how do I go about infiltrating a ship that's submerged?"

"Master Chief, I leave that entirely up to you," Keyes replied, "But remember: the ship's systems _must_ remain intact in order for us to be able to use them."

"Acknowledged. With your permission, I'd like to get started right away, sir."

"Permission granted. Good luck, and God's speed to the both of you."

Master Chief nodded as he armed himself with some necessary… essentials to the mission. The basic MA5B Assault Rifle—custom-modified with a silencer, four M9 HE-DP grenades, and of course, the standard-issue M6D pistol. Before he embarked, he made a quick once-over of his HUD:

_MA5B Assault Rifle: Ammunition Restocked._

M6D Pistol: Ammunition Restocked.

Over-Shield: 100% Charge

Active Camouflage: Inactive [Activate Y/N?]

NAV Point: None set.

When he was sure that everything was in order, he gave one final salute to Keyes, and bolted off in the direction of his target.

"Cortana," he started, "A NAV Point, if you please."

__

Acknowledged, Cortana started, _Marking off the location of the dropship… now._

_NAV Point: 647.3M_

"Six hundred forty-seven point three meters?" Master Chief asked, "Being a bit too precise, aren't we?"

__

Are you kidding? Cortana asked, _Can't be too precise in this line of work—not anymore._

"Not anymore? What's changed since last night?" Master Chief asked, maintaining his pace to his target.

_NAV Point: 500.0M_

__

Nothing that you need to occupy your thoughts with, Cortana replied.

Taking this as a hint not to pursue the matter any further, Master Chief just decided to let it go, and just kept his eyes on the ground.

Approximately five minutes later, they reached a plateau that looked down into the water-body. Sure enough, Master Chief was able to see the unmistakable purple hue emanating approximately ten meters from the shore.

"Well," he started, "There's our target, and apparently, no hostiles in sight."

__

Wait a second, Cortana replied, _Do you hear that?_

"No," Master Chief replied, "As a matter of fact, I…"

But then he did. It was the unmistakable shriek of the Covenant Banshee. With no cover in sight, he was a sitting duck atop the bald plateau.

"Ideas?" Master Chief asked, awaiting an answer from Cortana.

__

I don't know if this is going to work, but let's give it a shot.

"Oh, that just filled me with confidence," Master Chief replied, "What do you have in mind?"

__

I think that if you can jump at just the right moment, you might have a shot at knocking the pilot out cold.

"And I accomplish this… how?"

__

Just jump on my mark.

Master Chief nodded, and watched as the Banshee closed in on him. Faster and faster—the shriek of it sending shivers up and down his spine. It was about thirty meters away.

"Cortana?"

__

Not yet.

Twenty meters.

"Well?

__

Not yet! Patience is a virtue, you know…

Ten meters.

"You know what… Just…"

__

Jump!

With that, Master Chief jumped, and rammed the top of his helmet right into the underside of the Banshee, and sure enough, it eventually crashed into the ground. He went over and pried the canopy open, and there was the pilot. Knocked out cold, exactly as predicted. But Master Chief didn't want to take any chances, so he pulled the pilot out, and snapped its neck.

"Sorry about that," Master Chief started, "But I don't need you to make the mission any more complex than necessary."

__

Talking to a Covenant, Cortana started, _Don't waste your breath on them._

"You might not mind senseless killing, but it just doesn't sit right with me."

And without another thought, Master Chief hopped into the Banshee and accelerated into the sky. From up above the ground, he was able to see a lot more than he'd seen from his primitive vantage-point on the plateau. There were approximately thirty-four Grunts, perhaps twenty more Jackals, a few Elite, and two Hunters.

He swooped in for a better look, and it caught the attention of the aliens below, and they showed this. But it was too late—with a quick flick of his fingers, Master Chief fired a fuel-rod cannon blast down toward them, and incinerated half of them. With another pass, and another shot, he destroyed the rest of them, and then proceeded to land on the shore.

__

Excellent work, Master Chief, Cortana said, praising Master Chief for his mercenary skills.

"Don't… don't mention it." Master Chief replied, heading toward the dropship in the lagoon.

As he went lower and lower into the depths of the water, he could feel the pressure… just for a second… pushing against the MJOLNIR armor, but then it adapted, and all was well again. A few moments later, he reached the ship, and began to look for the access point that the Covenant were using to get in. It didn't take long before he managed to find it: it was a rather large gash in the side, and air was escaping rather quickly.

He swum over to the hole and pulled himself in with ease—and came face to face with the corpse of a Jackal. Again, more shivers went up and down Master Chief's spine.

"What the hell?" he asked, swimming through the corridors, "What could have done this?"

All of a sudden, there was a large clatter at the end of the corridor. He quickly enabled the infrared sensors in his HUD, and was horrified at what he saw.


	3. Monstrosities...

Master Chief had never seen anything like this before in his rounds on HALO. It looked like a Covenant Elite, but it was mangled to the point of not being able to be recognized. As a matter of fact, the mutations of the Elite had seemed so extensive to the point of bodily augmentation. As to how it had managed to survive in a sub-marine environment, Master Chief was clueless, but he didn't want to stay any longer and find out. He headed for where he'd come in.

__

You can't just leave, Cortana started, _You've got a mission to finish._

"Does it look like we can even start this mission, Cortana?" Master Chief replied, "The ship is flooded, and Captain Keyes specifically said that the ship had to remain intact. I'm relatively sure that no energy-based system could survive liquid submersion."

__

Point well taken, Cortana answered, _I'm marking of the Banshee as a NAV point._

"Great," Master Chief replied, "Thanks."

And with that, he sped his approach to the gash in the dropship's hull, with the creature in close proximity all the while.

__

Master Chief, Cortana started, _Whatever the hell that thing is, it's closing in… fast._

"Understood," Master Chief replied, "We're almost to the Banshee—and then we'll neutralize the threat… in class."

Cortana laughed, _Now that's the most sensible thing that you've said all day._

"Yeah, I thought so," Master Chief answered, clearing the hole.

"Eeeeeeraaaaaaaaah!" the creature screamed, coming closer and closer to Master Chief. But the scream was ignored as Master Chief neared the surface of the water.

__

Our friend back there's getting a little close, Cortana started, _Too close, in fact._

"Just a second," Master Chief replied, "We've only got ten more meters to the Banshee."

__

We're not gonna make it! Cortana yelled, _We're not gonna…_

But before she could say another word, Master Chief leapt out of the water, and landed just feet away from his final destination. Without another thought, he clambered into the Banshee, and engaged the anti-grav pods, and ascended into the sky. As soon as he was relatively sure that he was at a safe distance from the creature, he fingered in the commands to activate the magnification on the Banshee's display.

"What the hell is it?" Master Chief asked, "And how did it get here?"

__

I don't know, Cortana started, _But I wouldn't want to get too close to it. It looks dangerous._

"Agreed," Master Chief replied, "We're safe up here."

He couldn't have been more wrong though, and he found this out when the creature leapt the thirty meters to the Banshee and clung on, bashing in the metal finish.

"Dammit!" Master Chief yelled, "I can't shake him! Hold on! We're going down!"

The Banshee screamed as it plummeted toward the ground, with its unintended cargo. Moments later, they were all on the ground, and Master Chief was jammed in between the canopy and body of the Banshee, with no means of escape—that is, until the creature pried the canopy clean off the craft.

"Thanks a lot, buddy," Master Chief started, "But this is where I say goodbye."

With that, he pulled out his assault rifle, and pulled on the trigger… to no avail.

_MA5B Assault Rifle Malfunction—Weapon mechanics flooded._

"Damn," Master Chief started, "This just isn't my day."

All of a sudden, his right arm punched forward into the chest of the creature, and pulled back out with some kind of spore secured in the palm. Then, the left arm shot forward into the creature's neck, and turned one hundred eighty degrees, snapping the neck. The creature fell to the ground.

__

Incredible, Cortana started, _Your vitals are off the charts! What the hell is going on?_

Master Chief stood there, still grasping the spore in his hand, "I don't know—I really don't."

__

Whatever the hell that is, Cortana started, _We'd better take it back to the base to check it out._

"Agreed," Master Chief replied, storing the spore in one of the armor's vacuum-pockets, "Cortana, a NAV point to the base camp, if you please."

__

Affirmative, Cortana replied, _NAV point marked._

"Thanks," Master Chief answered, "For everything."

__

Don't go soft on me now, Chief, Cortana started, _Let's just get back to the base in one piece. That'll be thanks enough for me._

Master Chief nodded, and took off toward the NAV point on his HUD. As he did, he thought about the dropship back in the lake. What was the creature that had done all that damage? Was it only one of them, or were there still more back in the ship? And what was causing all of these malfunctions to his armor? Was it the long-since-destroyed Covenant energy cell? Too many questions—he'd make sure to get them answered when they got back to the camp. He knew that Keyes knew more than he was talking about. For the past few weeks, Keyes had been holding himself up in his private tent. Keeping secrets from the other men, including Master Chief.

__

I know what you're thinking, Chief, Cortana started, _But Captain Keyes is a good man. He'd never keep anything from us unless it was to our direct benefit._

"You know," Master Chief replied, "Sometimes having you in my mind is a bit disconcerting."

__

Hey, I aim to please, Cortana answered.

Master Chief didn't answer, but a smirk spread across his face as he zoomed closer and closer to the base camp.

__

Hold on, Chief, Cortana started, _I'm reading massive bio-signs on the motion tracker._

Master Chief came to a stop and looked at his motion tracker. Sure enough, there were some rather large blips closing in on his position. Approximately ten meters and closing. The blips were large, but not large enough to be Hunters, and not small enough to be Elite. They were something… different. But there _was_ something familiar about the signature, but it came too late.

__

Look, Cortana started, _Over there in the bushes!_

Master Chief quickly looked over to the right and saw another one of the creatures coming from behind a bush, followed by another creature, and then another, smaller in size.

"What the hell are these things?" Master Chief asked, "And why the hell are they chasing me?"

__

I..I, Cortana stammered, _I don't know…_

"If you don't know that, do you at least know how I can get rid of them as quickly as possible?"

__

I can't seem to see any weaknesses in the larger ones' physical integrity, Cortana started, _But there are obvious weaknesses to the smaller one. I think that a few quick shots with your pistol could destroy its legs._

"Acknowledged," Master Chief replied, pulling out his pistol, "This'll only take a few seconds."

With that, Master Chief opened fire on the creature's legs, and watched as it went down. Although it wasn't dead, it was rendered harmless by the inability to walk. However, the two larger creatures maintained their course towards Master Chief.

"Any ideas for his big brothers?" Master Chief asked, backing away.

__

No, Cortana replied, _You're on your own for this one—why not do to them what you did to the other one back on the shore?_

"Because I didn't purposely do that back on the shore," Master Chief replied, "But I suppose I could try to mimic the actions…"

__

Well, Cortana started, _Don't let me stop you—have at it._

Without another word, Master Chief lunged forward, and punched his fist into one of the creatures' chest, and ripped out the spore, throwing it to the ground. He didn't even bother snapping the neck, as the creature went down from having the spore removed. However, it was still moving—as was the other creature, so he decided to take the third creature out with style. He grabbed one of the grenades that he'd taken from back at the base camp, palmed it, and jabbed the fist into the creatures ribcage, twisted his hand, and rested the grenade next to a beating heart. He fingered in the activation sequence, and when he heard the confirmation beeps, he pulled his hand out, and ran for the nearest cover. He ducked behind it, and covered the back of his neck.

__

BAAAAAAAAAAAWOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The explosion, had Master Chief been a normal soldier, would have deafened him. However, thanks to the armor's shielding, he was left without little more than a few dirt specks from the crater where the creatures had been only moments before.

__

An excellent maneuver, Chief, Cortana said, _Now let's get back to the camp._

"Agreed," Master Chief replied, "On my way."

With that, he turned and began running toward the NAV point once more, and reached the base camp in five minutes, only to find that it had been totally ransacked.

All of the tents were set on fire, and there were traces of plasma discharge all over the rocky walls of the gorge.

"The Covenant," Master Chief started, surveying the damage, "…Captain Keyes…"

__

Scanning for survivors, Cortana started, and then paused. Master Chief began to walk around the campsite, looking for any signs of survivors himself.

__

I'm detecting one life form, Cortana started, _But it's very weak. I'm marking it off on your HUD._

Master Chief nodded, and followed the signal on his HUD to his target. And was surprised to find that it was a Covenant Grunt, just barely hanging on to life.

"Aaaaaaugh!" the Grunt yelled, reaching for a plasma pistol, "Get away! Get away!"

"What happened here, worm?" Master Chief asked, crunching the Grunt's paw under his immense boot.

"I'll never tell you, human!" the Grunt replied, reaching up to it's face mask. And without another word, it peeled off the facemask, and died instantly.

__

We won't be getting anything out of him, Cortana started, _Let's get moving. With any luck, the Covenant just took Keyes prisoner._

"Do you actually believe that?" Master Chief asked.

__

I'm not willing to take any chances, Cortana replied, _We can't afford to lose him. We've already suffered enough lost heroes in this war._

Master Chief nodded, and head off toward the nearest Covenant encampment.


	4. Retrieval of the captain...

"Cortana," Master Chief started, "Is there any way that you could give me a fix on Keyes' location?"

__

Just a minute, Cortana started, _I'm attempting to track his neural implants… NOW._

And with that, a new NAV point appeared on Master Chief's HUD and began flashing violently, and then slowed and stopped and remained on his HUD.

_Distance: 2,000.0 Meters_

"Shall we begin?" Master Chief asked, as he began sprinting toward the destination.

__

Are you insane? Cortana asked, _That trip would take days by foot. Let's take one of the Warthogs. There are still a couple of them intact from the assault._

"Wait," Master Chief started, "Before we go off to save someone that could possibly already be dead…"

__

Dead? Cortana asked, interrupting Master Chief in mid-speech, _We'll see about that. I'll check his vitals._

"I was just about to suggest that you do that," Master Chief replied, scratching the back of his head.

__

Oh, Cortana replied, _Well, then I guess you'll be happy to know that I've checked, and his vitals are stable._

"Alright," Master Chief started, "Then let's get underway shall we?"

__

Lets, Cortana replied.

With that, Master Chief head off in the direction of the vehicle bunkers. At first, what he saw didn't look too promising—the bunkers, for the most part had been totaled. There were scraps of Warthog chassis laying around the ground, as well as the barrel from one of the Scorpion tank had been driven right into the ground—but the tank itself was nowhere to be seen. However, right when he was going to give up on the search, Master Chief saw the grill of a Warthog poking out through a camo tarp that had been slid over it.

"And there's our ride," he said to himself, as he pulled the tarp away from the Warthog. It was in surprisingly excellent condition. As a matter of fact, it seemed that this vehicle had fared better than Master Chief had.

Without another thought, Master Chief clambered into the driver seat of the Warthog, and fingered in the activation codes on the dashboard. The vehicle whirred to life, and they were off in the direction of the NAV point once more.

__

Now let's think of a plan to retrieve the captain, Cortana started, _Because we can't just stroll into a Covenant camp and politely ask for him back._

"Of course not," Master Chief started, "I have something a bit more… interesting… in mind."

There was no response from Cortana—she didn't want to know what his plan was, because she was already worried about Keyes—she didn't need to be worrying about her wellbeing as well. The rest of the trip went without a hitch, and in about two hours, Master Chief had seen one-and-a-half of HALO's many diverse climates. From the desert-world climate that the base-camp had been set up in, to an ice-planet, and then finally, ending in a tropical paradise climate.

__

Now this is where WE should have set up base camp, Cortana said.

"Agreed," Master Chief said, climbing out of the Warthog, and looking around, "But we don't have time for sight-seeing right now. We need to get to Captain Keyes."

__

Of course, Cortana started, _That is our number one priority._

_Distance: 300.0 Meters_

Master Chief slowly made his way toward the NAV point, trying to make as little sound as possible. Eventually, he came upon a hill that went approximately thirty feet into the air, and decided to take the high ground as per his usual tactics.

After climbing up the hill, he looked down and saw a mediocre Covenant camp set up with three stationary guns placed in a triangle around the base, and manned by Covenant Grunts. In the center was a ring of storage containers, stacked about fifteen feet high. And in the center of those storage containers were the marine prisoners that the Covenant had taken—and Captain Keyes.

"This looks like it's a bit too easy, doesn't it?" Master Chief asked, "There's gotta be more to it."

__

Agreed, Cortana started, _But from our vantage point, there's little we can to do see any more than we do now._

"Maybe so," Master Chief started, looking at a small rock lying next to him, "But perhaps we can add a little more to the picture…"

With that, he picked up the rock, and hurled it at one of the storage containers. It hit with a loud clang, and within seconds, the three stationary guns targeted the containers and five plasma sabres rushed to the scene.

"Cloaked Elite," Master Chief said quietly.

__

But there's more, Cortana started, _Look._

The ground shook as two Hunters entered the scene, with fuel-rod cannons at the ready.

"Well," Master Chief started, "Things have just gotten a little more interesting…"

The Covenant stayed on the scene for a few moments before disappearing out of view. Master Chief had to think about how he was going to complete his mission with little or no human casualties.

"Of course," Master Chief started, "Cortana, on my mark, activate my camouflage."

__

Acknowledged, Cortana replied.

With that, Master Chief ran down the hill, and began circling around the left.

"Three."

He moved closer and closer to the Covenant campsite.

"Two."

Closer still.

"One."

He could see the glow of the plasma sabres appearing just around the bend.

"Mark," Master Chief told Cortana, as he vanished under the cover of the active camouflage.

As he continued walking, the plasma sabre appeared in full-view, and he was able to make out the blurred outline of a Covenant Elite, standing at the ready. Master Chief sneaked around behind the Elite, and pulled out his MA5B assault rifle. He based the Elite over the back of the skull, and killed it instantly. He went over to another one of the Elite and did the same, and then again to another one. They both died instantly. However, as he went to the fourth Elite, he bashed it, and instead of dying, the Elite let out a loud scream—Master Chief had bashed it in the face, and it was pissed.

Master Chief quickly tried to circle around behind the Elite and get another shot, but it was too late. Chaos broke out, and the remaining two Elite and the four Hunters all huddled together in an offensive stance.

__

Things have just gotten even MORE difficult, Cortana started.

"Difficult," Master Chief started, "But not impossible."

He left the area, and went to one of the stationary cannons and strangled the Grunt that was manning the weapon. He dragged the Grunt to the bushes, and went back to the cannon and clambered in, opening fire on the Elite and Hunters.

He managed to take out one of the Elite, and severely injure one of the Hunters, but the remaining Covenant made a mad dash for the gun, and Master Chief quickly dove out of the seat. As he jumped out, he looked at his active camouflage readout.

_Active Camouflage: Active. 30% Remaining {10:59 Remaining}_

He cleared the gun just in time to see three Hunters ramming into the gun, totaling it beyond repair. He quickly ran for the next stationary cannon, which had turned in his direction in the midst of all the chaos. He bashed the Grunt on the back of the head, and just let the body fall to the ground. He opened fire on the Covenant once again, and killed two of the Hunters. As he was about to finish them off, he felt painful jolts in his left side. He looked, and saw bolts of super-charged plasma hurtling in his direction from the other stationary cannon. His shield was being diminished, and he could feel the rumbling of the Covenant making their way toward the cannon. He pulled out a grenade, and fingered in the activation codes, and set the detonation for ten seconds, and jumped out, rolling behind one of the storage containers.

"Four… three… two… one." He said to himself, as an explosion rang through the air, toppling him backwards, and knocking a storage container onto himself.

_Warning: Active Camouflage Failure!_

"Dammit," he said to himself, as he tried to force the storage container off of his body. He stopped though, and listened to make sure that there were no survivors from the blast. All of a sudden, he could hear the rustling of footsteps coming in his direction, accompanied by a blue glow. Within moments, a plasma sabre was floating in front of his face. The active camouflage on the Elite was failing, and eventually, it flickered out, and he could make out the Elite in all of its majesty.

"Human," it started, "You will be destroyed, for it is the will of the gods."

"Go to hell," Master Chief replied, still straining to remove the storage container. He watched as the Elite raised the plasma sabre above its head, and closed his eyes as it swung it down. After a few moments, Master Chief opened his eyes and wondered why he was still alive. And then he saw why: his hands had clapped onto either side of the plasma blade.

__

I'm going to attempt to defuse the plasma sabre, Cortana started, _Just a moment._

With that, Master Chief heard a shrill, high-pitched whistling emanating from within his armor. It continued to rise in decibels until finally, a bright flash filled the air. His shields had been depleted, but the plasma blade had been extinguished. At least now, the odds had been evened out.

The Elite yelled, and began pounding wildly on Master Chief's chest. He could feel the powerful blows forcing the air out of his lungs, and thought for sure that he was going to pass out, when all of a sudden, super-charged plasma streaked toward the Elite, killing it in two bursts.

"Wha?" Master Chief asked, in a daze.

"Master Chief," Keyes started, "We're in your debt for saving our lives, but you coming here was foolish and reckless. Thanks."

Master Chief nodded, still having a hard time breathing with the large container still atop of his body.

"Men," Keyes yelled, "I need some assistance over here! Get this damn thing off of the Chief's body! Double time!"

"Sir, yes sir!" the marines yelled, as they flocked over to the container and pulled it off.

"We're not out of trouble yet," Master Chief started, "The Hunters… I only took out three of them."

"Don't worry," Keyes started, helping Master Chief to his feet, "The other one has been… taken care of."

As he said this, Keyes motioned over to the fourth Hunter that had been bound with plasma chains. It struggled at its bindings, but to no avail. Master Chief smiled.

"What do you plan to do with it?"

"We're going to find out what makes them…" Keyes started, "Tick."

Master Chief was confused, but didn't ask any questions—he was in too much of a daze.

"Alright men, grab that monstrosity and load 'im up!" Keyes ordered.

The marines all nodded in acknowledgement and grabbed the Hunter, throwing him onto a makeshift sleigh that they'd created. They attached the forward winch to the sleigh, and began hauling it off toward the base camp.

"Sir," Master Chief started to Keyes, "What happened back at the base camp?"

"The Covenant decided to pay us a visit," Keyes replied, "But they weren't alone… These… these things… They tagged along behind them. Massive casualties for the Covenant."

"Things?" Master Chief asked, "Like this?"

He pulled out the spore that he'd taken from the creature earlier that day and showed it to Keyes.

"Christ," Keyes replied, "That's it… Where the hell did you get that?"

"I'll explain on the way to base." Master Chief replied.

"Looking forward to it. Cortana, can you hear me?"

__

Yes, captain, Cortana replied.

"Excellent. I need you to hack into the Covenant battlenet and find out as much as you can about these new lifeforms."

__

Understood, Cortana replied.

As they walked back to the base, Master Chief was silent. He was thinking about what he'd just done. To an ordinary man, that entire task would have been impossible, and yet here, he'd managed to pull it off without a hitch. But he was still confused as to how he'd managed to stop the Elite from killing him. What was going on with this armor?


	5. The Flood...

"So about that spore," Keyes started, walking alongside Master Chief, "Where did you obtain it?"

"Well, sir," Master Chief replied, "While I was trying to complete my mission to capture the dropship, I was ambushed by one of the creatures."

"I see," Keyes answered, "And the mission… How did that go?"

"I'm sorry sir, but the ship had been flooded—it was more than likely beyond salvage."

"That's unfortunate," Keyes started, "As that dropship could have been our ticket off of this… this HALO."

"Sir?"

"I haven't let any of the others know about it," Keyes replied, "But I'd planned to get all of us off of HALO and destroy it by creating an overload in the slipstream reactors."

__

Why couldn't we just get off in one of our Pelicans? Cortana asked, finally getting involved in the conversation.

"Because," Captain Keyes started, "We're a long way from home, and a standard Pelican dropship would take around one or two hundred years to get back."

__

And a Covenant dropship…

"Has the same pinpoint slipstream technology that the Covenant cruisers possess," Keyes said, finishing Cortana's statement.

"What about one of the Longsword interceptors?" Master Chief asked, "They're equipped with slipstream drives as well, are they not?"

"Yes," Keyes replied, "But only one of them survived the crash in the Pillar of Autumn. And it only has life-support for approximately five or six men at the maximum."

"Understood," Master Chief replied.

"Besides," Keyes continued, "We couldn't afford to let the Covenant get their hands on one of them. The Longswords have the same database allotment as the Pillar of Autumn herself. A jump back home would be less risky in a Covenant ship that had no information on earth coordinates."

__

Of course, Cortana replied.

"Anyway," Keyes started, shaking his head as if in a trance, "Back to that spore… How did you manage to separate it from the rest of the creature?"

"I don't understand that fully sir," Master Chief replied, "I believe there is something going on with the MJOLNIR armor."

"Cortana?"

__

Sir, Cortana started, _I can't confirm or deny what the Chief just said. There have been some random anomalies, but…_

"But nothing," Keyes started, "When we get back to the base, we'll run a full diagnostic on your armor. Understood?"

"Yes sir," Master Chief replied, returning his gaze to the path ahead of him.

An hour later, a Warthog came and picked Master Chief and Keyes up, making their journey a lot less lengthy. When they arrived at the base, the other marines had already begun repairing the damaged vehicle bunkers and the vehicles therein. The tents had already been set up, so Master Chief head toward the medical tent along with Keyes.

"Master Chief needs a full sys-diag of his armor," Keyes started, "And make it snappy."

"Understood sir," one of the techs replied, "We'll get on it right away. This way, Master Chief."

Master Chief obeyed the tech, and followed him to another part of the tent that was full of electronic consoles, all lit up and displaying Master Chief's vitals.

"Alright sir," the tech started, "I'm going to deactivate your armor's energy cell now. So just hang tight for a second."

Master Chief nodded, "I'll see you in a few seconds, Cortana."

__

Understood. Yank me.

Master Chief reached up, and pulled out the data-node that contained Cortana's program, and inserted it into one of the holotanks that he saw nearby. He powered it up, and Cortana's figure fizzled into view.

__

It's good to have a little more… space, Cortana said, looking around the tent.

Master Chief laughed, as the tech deactivated and removed the energy cell from his armor. He felt naked again, without the power that the armor gave him. He dropped the spore that he'd been carrying on the ground, and it hit with a soggy plop.

"Um," the tech started, "What the hell is that?"

"We don't know," Master Chief replied, "But it isn't much to look at, is it?"

"I second that motion," the tech answered, bending down to pick it up, "And it doesn't feel too good either… Like an egg out of the shell…"

He dropped the spore into a containment unit, and sealed it shut.

"Alright sir, you can remove your armor on your own now if you wish, or I can give you some assistance."

"I think I can manage," Master Chief replied, "But thanks anyway."

"No problem sir. We found some extra clothes lying around that could be your size. They're in the supply tent. Would you like me to go get you a pair?"

"That'd be great. Thanks."

The tech nodded, and left the tent. Master Chief began removing his armor, starting with his helmet. A loud hiss filled the air as the recycled air escaped from within the airtight helmet.

"Ah," Master Chief started, "Fresh air… It's been a while."

__

Well, Cortana started, _Enjoy it while you can, because you'll be back in that armor in no time. Breathing in recycled air once again._

"Wouldn't have it any other way," Master Chief replied, removing the rest of the armor. The tech re-entered the tent with the clothes.

"Alright, here are those clothes," he started, "Let me know if there's anything else you need."

"Understood," Master Chief replied, "Dismissed."

The tech grabbed up the armor and left the tent again. Master Chief began pulling on the clothes that the tech had left, and they fit like a glove.

"Another luxury that I've missed," Master Chief replied, "Cotton."

Cortana laughed, and looked over Master Chief's chiseled physique.

__

And quite a body you've got there, Chief, she started, _Quite the ladies' man, aren't you?_

Master Chief smirked, "Nice of you to notice."

Moments later, Keyes entered the tent, "So, Cortana, any luck with the battlenet?"

__

Affirmative sir, Cortana replied, _Apparently, the Covenant refer to these creatures as the Flood._

"The Flood? Quite a fitting name… That's how they attacked the Covenant earlier today: in floods."

__

It seems that there are a few different types of the Flood as well, sir. The smaller spores, Cortana started, motioning to the spore in the container, _Are what really come in numbers. And then there are the combat grunts, and something that is more of a bio-container for the small spores. The grunts and carriers are created when the spores attach themselves to a suitable host. From that point, they simply mutate the host's genetic structure. Augment it with unnatural strength. They're monsters._

"Well," Keyes started, "It seems that we've got ourselves a new ally."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Master Chief started, "Remember: I said that the creature **ambushed** me. It wasn't a walk in the park. The bastard took down a Banshee that I'd commandeered—from quite some altitude."

"Weapons?"

"No sir. It jumped."

"Christ," Keyes replied, "We'll have to keep an eye out for those little bastards then. Perhaps the only reason that they haven't taken us is because they haven't seen many of us around…"

"Slim pickings," Master Chief said.

Keyes nodded, "Cortana, you keep listening in on those transmissions and learn as much as you can. The chief and I are going to check out the progress on the armor's sys-diag."

__

Affirmative, Cortana started, disappearing out of view.

With that, Keyes and Master Chief left the tent just as Pvt. Higgins entered.

"What the hell?" he asked himself, as he looked at the container with the spore.

He opened the container, and started poking at it with his fingers, "My god, that is friggin' disgusting!" he yelled.

Suddenly, the spore lunged at his face, muffling the screams of the defenseless private.


	6. A war on two fronts...

"Sir," the tech said, we've found something out that could explain what's happening with the armor.

"Spill it," Keyes replied, following the tech into the tent, followed closely by Master Chief.

"Well," the tech started, "It seems that while we managed to easily remove the Covenant energy cell, the progress was only skin deep."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning," the tech paused, trying to find an explanation, "That there are contaminants still running through the armor's crystalline structure."

"In English, please," Keyes ordered, looking frustrated.

"In other words," Cortana started, coming into view on the holopanel, "Covenant energy cells have fail-safe mechanisms that prevent other species from using them. In this case, they're taking control of the armor bit by bit."

"Is there any way to remove the contaminants?" Master Chief asked, staring Cortana in the eyes.

"Oh, it can be done," Cortana started, "But it'll take a while before we can remove all of them."

"How long, exactly?"

"We're looking at approximately two weeks of repairs," Cortana replied.

"Two weeks?!" Master Chief yelled, "What am I supposed to do until then?"

"Do what you do best," Cortana started, "Win."

Master Chief sighed and then nodded. Cortana was right—even without the armor's physical enhancing abilities, he was still the strongest soldier in the corps.

Keyes nodded, "Private!" he yelled, "The Master Chief is going to be needing some standard issue grunt armor."

"Sir?" the private asked, obviously confused.

"What part of that order did you not understand?" Keyes asked.

"I understand perfectly clear sir!" the private answered, saluting Keyes, and then leaving the tent.

"Sir, are you alright?" Master Chief asked, "You seem a bit tense… More so than usual."

"I'm… I'm fine, Chief. Thanks," Keyes replied, "It's just that this war has been pressing down on me—pressing down on _us_. I'll be alright."

Master Chief nodded, "So what's our next mission objective?"

"Always ready for the next event—that's what I like about you, John."

The tech, Cortana, and Master Chief all exchanged confused glances.

"Sir, nobody's called me John in quite some time now," Master Chief replied.

"Huh? Oh, sorry about that Chief," Keyes answered, "Just… nostalgia, I suppose. Anyway, your next objective will be to scout out all of the Covenant encampments within two kilometers of this base camp."

"Sir? I don't think that a recon mission would be the best mission to give me on my own…"

"Who says that you'll be on your own?" Keyes asked, "Cortana will be accompanying you as well."

"But sir," Cortana started, "The armor won't be finished for the next two weeks."

"That's true," Keyes started, "But you'll be accompanying the Chief in a much more… hands on approach."

"I don't understand sir," Cortana replied.

Keyes went over to the holopanel and fingered in a few key sequences. Cortana faded from view, and then Keyes fingered in a few more key sequences.

"Transfer complete," a voice came from within the holopanel.

Keyes removed a small object from a data node on the holopanel, and then held it in the air at breast height.

"Activate Cortana zero zero one," Keyes said, as Cortana's figure appeared, standing in the center of the room. Keyes let go of the object, and it remained in the air, clinging to Cortana's shoulder.

"What…? How…?" Cortana asked.

"This is something that Dr. Halsey thought up a few years ago: it's a mobile holographic emitter array. She was hesitant to test it, as she thought that your program would be lost in the transfer."

"What?!" Cortana asked, "And you just decided that I'd be your guinea pig for it?"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures. It's a risk that I was willing to take."

"It was a rather rash decision," Cortana said, stepping toward Keyes, "But I think that I'll like this a lot." As she finished, she slapped Keyes across the face.

"Interesting," Cortana started, a smile spreading across her face, "Tangible as well. I like it."

"Don't get too comfortable," Keyes replied, rubbing the side of his face, "We've got more pressing issues to worry about."

"Understood."

All throughout this entire ordeal, Master Chief had just been standing and watching in disbelief as Cortana appeared—in full scale—in front of his eyes. He was staring, and Cortana knew it.

"Something… bothering you, Chief?" Cortana asked, turning toward him.

"No… nothing at all."

The private entered the tent with the armor.

"Sorry that it took so long, sir," he started, "But I had a hard time finding armor in your size."

Master Chief laughed, and then took the armor from the private.

"Any further orders si…"

"Private?" Keyes asked, stepping toward the man.

A look of sheer terror spread across the private's face, followed by a trickle of blood running down the left side of his face. He fell forward, with a bowie knife lodged in his spine.

"What the hell is this?" Keyes asked, quickly kneeling beside the boy.

Master Chief looked at the opening to the tent and realized that there was someone standing there… A mild silhouette against the olive drab tarp.

"Sir, look," Master Chief said, pointing at the shadow.

"What in God's name is that?"

Master Chief grabbed the bowie knife, and jabbed it through the tarp into the figure on the other side.

"Rraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrgh!"

"Christ," Keyes started, "It's the Flood."

The figure stepped into the tent, the bowie knife firmly lodged into its sternum. A nametag was clearly visible on its left breast.

"Private Higgins?" Keyes asked, "What the hell happened to you?"

But there was no answer. Instead, the creature raised both of its arms above its head and then rained them down onto Keyes, knocking him out cold.

Master Chief looked around the tent as quickly as he could for a weapon—any weapon. To his luck, he found Keyes' pistol laying several feet away from its owner. He lunged at it, and raised it to the creature's face.

"You picked the wrong day to mess with the human race, my friend," Master Chief said, pulling the trigger.

The creature recoiled back a few feet, staggered forward, reached out an arm, and then fell dead to the ground.

Cortana stepped forward, and nudged the creature with her foot. Nothing. She kneeled down and flipped it over onto its back.

"Notice anything familiar?" Cortana asked.

"Kind of a stupid question, don't you think?" Master Chief asked, "We already know that it's Private Higgins."

"No," Cortana replied, "Look."

She pointed to a large bulge in Higgins' chest. It was the same spore that Master Chief had pulled from his assailant earlier in the week—he could tell because of the finger marks from the armor's grip.

"Well, it seems that the war is raging between two fronts now," Master Chief started.

He turned to Keyes, and bent down. Looking over his shoulder, he yelled for an MP.

"An MP? Don't you think you should be calling for a medic?" Cortana asked.

"No," Master Chief replied, "He won't be needing one."

Before Cortana could fit another word in, Master Chief flipped Keyes' body over. There, at the base of Keyes' skull was a trickle of a translucent blue blood.

"What the hell?" Cortana asked, "What's going on, Chief?"

"I don't know," Master Chief replied, "But we're going to find out soon."

The MP entered the tent, followed by another one. Master Chief ordered the two to take Keyes to a holding cell. They were hesitant at first, but once they saw the blood, they complied, and carried the body out of the tent. 


	7. Home... destroyed...

Master Chief took the time that night to enjoy a breath of fresh air—it'd been a very long time since he'd been in the traditional marine armor with non-recycled air. He sat down on a storage container in front of the makeshift brig that they'd set up to contain Keyes, who was just coming around.

"What the hell," Keyes started, spotting Master Chief, "What the hell is going on here, Chief?"

"Who are you?" Master Chief asked, looking Keyes in the eyes.

"What are you talking about? I'm Captain Jacob Keyes—who else would I be?"

"A wolf in sheep's clothing," Master Chief started.

"Or in this case," Cortana said, circling around Master Chief, "A Covenant in human's clothing."

"I don't… understand," Keyes started, "Are you… is this… a mutiny?"

"You could put it that way," Master Chief replied, "But until we get things squared away, you aren't going anywhere."

"You do realize that this is a court-martial offense, don't you? Cortana, I can have your program decompiled!"

Cortana looked taken aback, "You aren't the genuine article," she started, "He would never EVER threaten anyone."

"I… I'm sorry," Keyes replied, "I've been under a lot of strain lately… Considering how much I've gone through, I've got perfect cause to act like this."

Cortana looked a bit hurt, but then turned and walked away.

"Cortana, wait," Keyes started, "I'm really sorry…"

But it was too late—Cortana had already disappeared into the armory tent.

"God damn it," Keyes started, "What the hell is going on? Chief, I want some answers… now!"

Master Chief got up and approached the force field of the brig. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a datapad with something being displayed on its face.

"What's this?" Keyes asked, moving as close to the force field as possible.

"This," Master Chief replied, "Is the typical human genome." He turned the datapad to Keyes to show him a spinning DNA helix.

"And this," Master Chief continued, "Is YOUR genome." He fingered in a sequence of codes, and then turned it back to Keyes, showing him a different helix.

"So?"

"So," Master Chief answered, "What I _didn't_ show you was the genome of the different alien sects in the Covenant." He fingered in more codes, and four new helixes were spinning on the screen below Keyes'.

"I fail to see what you're driving at here," Keyes said, obviously getting frustrated.

"Your genome seems to be a mix of human DNA," Master Chief replied, "And that of a Covenant Elite."

Keyes let out a loud sigh, and then went to sit down on the solitary bench that was against the opposite wall of the enclosure.

"So what the hell is going on sir?" Master Chief asked, "The truth…"

"Your captain is with the Covenant now, you frail human. And there is no way that you'll ever recover him!"

Master Chief watched as Keyes reached into his mouth and pulled out a tooth from his upper jaw—but it wasn't a tooth; there was something different about it. 

"Chez lau kein faur," Keyes said, scrunching the object between his hands.

All of a sudden, Master Chief could hear a very shrill beeping noise, as Keyes' hands began to glow with a furious red color—it was a bomb, and this was a kamikaze run.

Master Chief ran as fast as he could away from the brig—he needed to put some distance between him and the explosive.

As he was running, he made a fast pass by Cortana and grabbed her mobile emitter from her shoulder, causing her to fizzle out of view.

"What the hell is going on, Chief?" one of the marines asked, worried about why he was running.

"The captain," Master Chief yelled back as he continued running, "Is an impostor! Get the hell out of here and warn the others! Bomb!"

A look of shear terror spread across the marine's face, as he dropped to his knees to pray for the last few seconds of his life. Master Chief felt a sharp jab of regret that he couldn't save the marine, but the chances of him being able to carry anyone and maintain a swift pace was slim to none—minimal if best. He turned away and kept running, jumping just as the bomb exploded—the shockwave sent him tumbling forward. Cortana's mobile emitter went flying out of his hands, sliding toward the edge of the cliff face—Master Chief lunged.

"Gotcha!" he yelled, grabbing the emitter and rolling back to his feet.

Looking at the emitter, he was surprised by the number of buttons that were on its face.

"Dammit," he started, "Nothing's ever without a hitch, is it?"

He looked closer at the emitter, and realized that it was Covenant in design. There was no telling what would happen to Cortana's program if it remained in the emitter. He had to get her—had to get himself—back into the armor.

He headed back to the base camp and was greeted by shrapnel and corpses lying all over the place. The armory had suffered the most damage, and was hardly anything more than a smoldering pile of bullet casings and vehicle hull plating. Back at the brig, there was nothing more than a crater, and the all-too-familiar blue blood of the Covenant Elite.

"Just give me a while Cortana," Master Chief said to himself, "I'll get you back up and running in no time…"

Giving a quick look around the area, Master Chief knew that finding the armor in one piece was going to be a difficult task, if at all possible. All around him, he could hear the crackling of ashes, and smell the scent of death lingering in the air.

"Those bastards," he started, "They're going to pay for this—and pay dearly."

He circled around from wreckage to wreckage, looking for traces of the armor, or a holopanel that he could interface the emitter with. Just as he was about to give up, he saw a glimmer of green light shimmering from a small hole about ten feet away. He ran to the spot and put the emitter in a pocket while he began digging away around the object. He hoped that what he'd turn up would be—yes, it was in fact—the MJOLNIR armor.

He managed to find all of the segments of the armor within the next hour, but it didn't look too good—there were countless dents in each part, and parts of the crystalline A.I. containment structure were shattered. Assuming that he could suit himself up without the aid of a tech, and get Cortana's program into the AICS, she would have limited access to the suit's readouts. And, more than likely, would be unable to control any feature of the suit, which meant that Master Chief would have to enable them himself. Not impossible, but a bit more time-consuming.

Dawn was just approaching, and the sun was appearing over the East side of the camp. With the added light, Master Chief should have an easier time getting suited up, which wasn't saying much, as usually, there was a team of no less than five techs required to get the suit up and running. The bare minimum that was required though, was at least one tech that knew what he was doing—but the wearer of the suit to attempt to set it up? This was something never before attempted. But without another thought, Master Chief started to put the armor on, piece by piece, unaware of the dangers lurking around the decimated campsite.


	8. Vengeance, thy name is SHIVA-III...

It took a little over seven hours for Master Chief to completely assemble the armor around his body. Finishing up around noon, he was able to power on the suit with a minimal array of options. Among these, was the motion tracker—and he was suddenly aware of the guests that had gathered around him. Circling in a tight radius around him were eight anomalies—too small to be a Hunter, yet too small to be an Elite.

"Who the hell is out there?" Master Chief asked, jumping to his feet.

There was no reply from the phantoms that lurked just outside of the barrier of shrapnel. Master Chief, for the first time in the past few years, was without Cortana's guidance—and to say in the least, he was a bit worried about his capabilities. Looking at his HUD readout only furthered his pessimistic mood.

__

Energy Level: 12%

Shield Strength: 64% - Charging.

Active Camouflage: Inactive [Insufficient Energy]

WARNING: System repairs incomplete!

Armament(s):

3 Plasma Grenade(s)

4 Fragmentation Grenade(s)

Although most of the readout was rather poor news, Master Chief was a bit confused at how the grenades had managed to survive the explosion. In any event, it didn't matter, because they were his last hope at survival, and he was going to use them to the full extent.

On the motion tracker, he noticed that his guests were circling in groups of two. This meant that the four fragmentation grenades that he had should be able to take care of them nicely. He plotted the where they would be in the five second intervals, and pulled out the first fragmentation grenade, activated it, and then threw it directly at one of the duos. Three seconds later, an explosion rang through the air, and the two blips disappeared off of the motion tracker.

"Excellent," Master Chief said to himself, "Two down, six more to go."

All of a sudden, where the two blips had disappeared, six smaller blips reappeared and started converging on Master Chief's position. Within seconds, he could see what looked like small jellyfish—no—they looked like the spore that he'd pulled from the creature a couple days earlier. They were closing in quickly, and he had no way that he could possibly fight them off.

"Dammit," Master Chief said to himself, "This is it."

He braced himself, covering his visor with his arms, and waited—and waited. After three minutes, when nothing had happened, he lowered his arms, and the spores were gone—nothing but smudges on the ground.

"What in the hell?" Master Chief asked, "No damage at all?"

But that wasn't true—he looked at his HUD readout once more.

__

Energy Level: 11%

Shield Strength: 58% - Charging.

Active Camouflage: Inactive [Insufficient Energy]

WARNING: System repairs incomplete!

Armament(s):

3 Plasma Grenade(s)

3 Fragmentation Grenade(s)

Apparently, the spores couldn't penetrate his shielding. This meant that he had an advantage over the Flood—or at least, the spores. Because of the spores, Master Chief now knew that his guests were indeed the Flood—but he was curious as to how that chain of events had come into play. He had to find out what the creatures were that were circling him. Looking at his motion tracker once more, he could see that the three remaining pairs of creatures were still wandering around him.

Without another thought, he reached for a plasma grenade, and got ready to activate it. He climbed over the top of the piles of shrapnel to get a better look, and he was nauseated by what he saw.

It appeared to be… a pair of… legs, with a large mass of bio-matter that made up some sort of… sac. Master Chief still couldn't make the connection with how the spores had appeared, so he quietly sank down into a small crevasse in the shrapnel barrier and activated the plasma grenade. He quickly poked his head up and over the wall, and threw it at one of the creatures. As he watched, the other creature tried to pry the grenade off of it's counter-part—to no avail. The grenade exploded, and totally annihilated the target, which it had stuck to, but instead of doing this to the other creature, it just sent it recoiling backwards.

Now flailing its legs violently, the bio-matter sac began to pulsate violently, and within seconds, exploded, sending eight spores flying in all directions—which all immediately homed in on Master Chief's position.

"What the—?" Master Chief yelled, running back to the center of the circle of shrapnel. The spores followed him over the barrier, and practically lunged at him. He made short work of them, punching them with all of his strength—they didn't even have a chance to take down his shields. However, he'd noticed that there was still one spore that had managed to survive the onslaught, and it was more or less on the verge of death. He disabled the shielding on the palm of his hands, and picked it up.

Looking more closely at it, Master Chief realized that the spore was rather simplistic in makeup, lacking much more than a thin semi-transparent exoskeleton that seemed to lack any hardness whatsoever. Inside, he was able to see a few different glands, connecting to a few of the spore's tentacles. Remembering back to the days at the "school" that he'd attended, he recalled that this looked something like the Portuguese-Man-of-War jellyfish back on earth. Disregarding this as irrelevant, Master Chief noticed two small sprouts on the outside of the exoskeleton, and realized that these were sensory organs that allowed it to track down its targets. As to how it did, Master Chief was clueless.

Suddenly, the spore started to pulsate violently, and Master Chief didn't want to find out what the end result was going to be, so he chucked it toward the last remaining pair of what he'd designated as spore-carriers. They disappeared off of his sensors, and more of the smaller spores quickly filled up the motion tracker. Without another thought, Master Chief re-enabled the shielding on his hands, and pulled out a fragmentation grenade, and estimated the ETA for the spores to reach his location. He fingered in the approximate time for the grenade's fuse, and dropped it on the ground, running in the opposite direction, and clearing the shrapnel barrier with a single leap.

Seconds later, the grenade detonated, and a wall of slop just washed over Master Chief, sending him recoiling backwards.

"Jesus," he said to himself, "That's gotta be the most disgusting thing that I've ever had the misfortune of…"

Before he could get another word out, he noticed that behind him was something that would help out a lot if he was going to recover the real Keyes, and get the hell off of HALO in one piece. It was one of the Pelican dropships that they'd brought along with them on the Pillar of Autumn. However, this particular Pelican was the one that Master Chief and the other SPARTAN-II's had modified for one of his previous missions—it was loaded to the teeth with heavy weaponry. Onboard dual thirty-three millimeter autocannons, hellfire missiles, and of course, a single SHIVA-III tactical nuke.

"Finally, my luck's improving," Master Chief said to himself. Pulling out the mobile emitter, Master Chief looked at it, and then the dropship—if he remembered correctly, there'd be a holopanel just aft of the cockpit. He quickly ran into the loading area and then into the mid-section of the ship, and sure enough, there _was_ a holopanel. He powered it up, and stuck the mobile emitter onto the single data node. Master Chief fingered in the same key sequence that he'd seen Keyes use when transferring TO the mobile emitter, hoping that the same would work to return it to human technology.

"Transfer complete," a voice said from the holopanel.

"Activate the transferred program," Master Chief said.

Cortana flickered into view, "What the hell just happened, Chief?"

"It's a rather… long story, and it ends like this: I saved you for once."

Cortana smiled, "Well, then I guess you've only gotta save me about oh… one hundred fifty-four more times?"

Master Chief laughed, "Oh really? Well, I guess that I'll have to keep this in mind. But getting back to more serious matters: do you feel any different?"

"Any different? Why should I?"

"The mobile emitter—it's Covenant technology, as was Keyes… or rather, the imposter Keyes," Master Chief replied.

Cortana was silent for a moment, her head dropped in disbelief, "Damn…"

"But apparently," Master Chief started, "The real Keyes is still alive with the Covenant… or so the imposter said…"

"Good news in an otherwise crappy day," Cortana said.

"Crappy day?"

"Yes," Cortana started, "It appears that although my program wasn't altered, a copy of my databanks was downloaded into deep within the emitter. An ingenious plan—getting us to go on a recon mission where we'd be captured, and the Covenant would have my databanks—and the knowledge to where Earth is…"

Master Chief pulled the emitter off of the holopanel, and crunched it in the palm of his hand, and walked out of the Pelican and attached it to the SHIVA-III nuke.

"What did you do with the emitter?" Cortana asked as Master Chief came back into the Pelican.

"If they want that emitter so bad," Master Chief replied, "I think that we should give it back to them."

With that, he went into the cockpit, initiated the Pelican's systems, and launched off in the direction of the Covenant's only stronghold on HALO: the Truth and Reconciliation.


	9. 343 Guilty Spark...

"Approaching the Truth and Reconciliation," a voice called over the comm.

"Thanks Cortana," Master Chief replied, "But I'm relatively sure that I could've found that out on my own."

Looking out of the cockpit, Master Chief could easily see the enormous hull of the Covenant cruiser. There was an obvious size difference between the two ships, but Master Chief knew that the explosive wield of a SHIVA-III nuke would more than take care of the cruiser. As to how he'd get the nuke past the lateral shielding—he was at a loss… for now.

"Cortana, prepare the SHIVA," Master Chief said, lowering the Pelican to the ground.

"What?" Cortana asked, "But what about Keyes? He could very well be aboard that Cruiser!"

"Well, we'll never know for sure," Master Chief started, "Until you check…"

"For signs of his neural implants? I'm on it," Cortana said, finishing off Master Chief's sentence.

Master Chief set the Pelican down in a small crevasse about five hundred meters away from the Truth and Reconciliation. He disengaged the engines and head back to the aft compartment.

"I've got him! His neural implants are emitting a tracing signal from within one of the brigs on the Truth and Reconciliation!"

"Well then," Master Chief started, "I guess that I'll see you when I get back." And he started to head out.

"You're not going to get rid of me _that_ easily," Cortana started, "There's a spare A.I. data node in the cabinet below this holopanel. Transfer my program to it, and then you know where to go from there."

"Yes ma'am," Master Chief replied, opening the cabinet and grabbing the node, "Here we go. You ready?"

"Yank me," Cortana answered, closing her eyes.

"Alright, this'll just take a sec," Master Chief said, fingering a few key sequences into the holopanel. Cortana fizzled from view.

"Transfer of program Cortana zero zero one complete," a voice called from the holopanel.

Master Chief grabbed the node and slowly pushed it into position in the data receptacle in his helmet.

"Ouch," Cortana started, "Seems like this armor's seen better days."

"That's an understatement," Master Chief replied, "But I'm relatively sure that we can still take on the Covenant forces."

"Although I admire your optimism," Cortana replied, "I doubt that optimism alone will help us take an entire cruiser full of Covenant."

"So what would you suggest?" Master Chief asked, waiting for a better idea.

"I'd suggest that we make our way back to the Pillar of Autumn, and get to engineering. There, we'll be able to repair your suit a bit more."

"The Pillar of Autumn," Master Chief started, "Is quite a detour from the inside of the Truth and Reconciliation."

"But it's a necessary detour," Cortana replied, "And you know that as well as I do."

Master Chief thought for a minute, trying to think of different possibilities, but after a while, he just sighed, "Yes, I suppose that you're right."

"Well, then we'd better get going," Cortana said, "The Pillar of Autumn is quite a bit away from here."

"Alright, but remember: patience is a virtue."

"Just get goin' cowboy," Cortana replied.

Master Chief laughed, and then went back to the cockpit and engaged the engines. Within minutes, they were airborne once more, and heading in the direction of the Pillar of Autumn's crash site.

It took nearly an hour to get to the Pillar of Autumn, and when they managed to get there, it wasn't a pretty sight. Portions of the hull were lying around the ground, and it looked as if the ship itself was being compressed by some… unseen force.

"Hm," Cortana started, "Seems as if the Autumn has seen better days as well…"

"Agreed," Master Chief replied, "And it seems as if a few of our Covenant friends have been making house-calls."

There were traces of Covenant all around the site: there were bodies of Grunts that had more than likely been used as mere cannon fodder scattered about, as well as the wreckage from a Ghost or two, and even a Banshee that had been crashed… no, it had been landed! There was a possibility of an Elite being inside the Autumn, and Master Chief was going to find out why. He flew alongside the Autumn's hull until he came upon an open loading port. He flew the Pelican in, and landed alongside the one remaining Longsword interceptors.

"What are you going to do?" Cortana asked.

"I'm going to do a little ordinance swapping, before we get over to the engineering bay," Master Chief replied.

Master Chief went quickly to work, stripping all of the weapons off of the Pelican, and adding them to the Longsword, modifying it to his liking. And when he was finished with the smaller weapons, he went and started to lift the SHIVA-III.

"Are you crazy?" Cortana asked, "If you drop that thing, this entire operation will be scrubbed—not to mention us!"

"A little faith, please," Master Chief replied, lifting the nuke, "I _am_ stronger than ten men put together, remember? And that's without the armor."

Cortana sighed, "Fine, but if you drop that, just remember…"

"I know, I know," Master Chief replied, "Just give me a few minutes to attach this to the Longsword."

It took nearly fifteen minutes to get the correct adapters that were needed, but eventually, Master Chief was able to mount the nuke to the underside of the Longsword.

"Alright," Cortana sad, "You did what you needed to do, now let's get back to the engineering bay."

"Acknowledged," Master Chief replied, "My uh, my knowledge of the ship's schematics are a bit rusty. Would you mind?"

"One NAV point, coming up," Cortana said, "What would you do without me?"

"I don't know," Master Chief replied, "I just don't know…"

Halfway to the engineering bay, Master Chief was stopped dead in his tracks—he could hear something… something different, that he couldn't quite put his finger on. It sounded like… someone humming? At the far end of the corridor, hovering in front of an active computer terminal, was a bright blue orb—it seemed as if the humming was coming from that. Master Chief bent down and picked up an assault rifle that he found lying on the floor, next to a fallen marine.

"I think that I'll get more usage out of this than you would," Master Chief said, patting the marine on the back. He looked at the readout on his HUD, and was satisfied to find that the weapon was restocked, minus a few shells that were more than likely used by his fallen comrade. Without another thought, he quickly ran down toward the floating object, and held the assault rifle to it.

"Oh," the object said, "Hello!"

"Who the hell are you?" Master Chief asked, "And what are you doing on this ship?"

"I am 343 Guilty Spark," the object replied, "I am the monitor of this installation."

"Installation? What installation? Are you referring to this giant hula-hoop that we're on?"

"This… hula-hoop… as you refer to it, is what will save you… humans is it? From mass extinction!"

"And how the hell would that happen?" Cortana asked, projecting her voice over Master Chief's comm.

"Who is that?" the monitor asked, floating in closer to Master Chief's visor.

"The name is Cortana," Cortana replied, "And I'm the AI who wants to know what's going on here."

"Oooooooh… How delightful!" the monitor replied, "A fellow construct!"

"What?"

"I am also a computer construct, embodied into a sophisticated piece of hardware, created by the Forerunner," the monitor started, "And as such, I've been entrusted with the task of monitoring this installation, as well as the research of the Flood.

"So you already know about the Flood?"

"That's correct," the monitor started, "But I more than _know_ about them—I am their caretaker."

"Caretaker? You must be thinking about a different Flood," Cortana replied, "The Flood that we've come in contact with is…"

"Virulent? Their parasitic nature belies their intelligence—as long as a host remains, the Flood remain virulent."

"That's all good and nice," Cortana said, "But what the hell happened? How did they get out?"

"The other humanoids on the installation," the monitor started, "It seems that their curiosity has left them with quite a problem—as well as with you."

Throughout the conversation, Master Chief watched as robotic entities descended through holes in the ceiling of the corridor, surrounding Master Chief and the monitor.

"What the hell is this?" Master Chief asked, brandishing his assault rifle at each one of them.

"They're Sentinels—and they help me to carry out my task."

"Well just know this, tin man: if I get any problems out of you, I'll turn you into a scrap heap."

"Ha ha ha!" the monitor laughed, "I doubt that would be possible. It seems that you've got insufficient weaponry to combat the Flood, much less us, Reclaimer."

"Reclaimer?"

"Well, it seems that I must cut our encounter short," the monitor said, cutting Master Chief off in mid-sentence, "As the Flood seem to be aboard this vessel. I estimate that you have less than five minutes to live."

With that, the monitor ascended out of the room, accompanied by the Sentinels. All around him, Master Chief could hear the rustling of conduits as the Flood moved in for the kill.

"Please tell me that you've got something up your sleeve," Cortana said.

"Sorry to disappoint you," Master Chief replied, "But I don't…"


	10. Explosions abound...

"You're kidding, right?" Cortana asked.

"Actually," Master Chief started, "Yeah."

With that, he pulled out a fragmentation grenade, activated it, and tossed it roughly ten meters down the corridor. It exploded, tearing a massive hole in the floor grating.

"And that," Master Chief said, "Is our exit."

"Well don't just stand there," Cortana replied, "Let's get the hell to it!"

Master Chief nodded, and ran for the opening, but no sooner had he started to run, when a Flood warrior climbed through the hole, followed closely by another, and then another.

"Hmmm," Master Chief started, "Three of them, and one of me."

"The poor bastards don't stand a chance," Cortana replied.

"You know," Master Chief replied, stopping in his tracks, "That phrase gets really old, but nevertheless, I have to agree."

He wielded his assault rifle, and aimed for yet another Flood that was coming through the hole: one of the spore carriers that he'd seen back at the demolished base camp.

"What are you doing?" Cortana asked, "Do you want those damned spores coming at us?"

"Hey," Master Chief replied, "The spores I can handle with little or no problem. These guys… well… you get the idea."

Cortana sighed, "Fine. Don't listen to me… Just fire away, cowboy…"

"With pleasure."

He opened fire on the spore carrier, and on the last bullet impact, it exploded, sending the Flood warriors flying into the bulkheads—killing them instantaneously. The spores that had been released by the explosion scuttled toward Master Chief, and then jumped, popping on impact.

"Now," Master Chief started, "Where were we?"

"Heh," Cortana started, "I believe we were heading to the engineering bay?"

"Of course," Master Chief replied, "Sounds like a plan."

They head off toward the engineering bay once more. Along the way, they saw the bodies of countless Jackals and Grunts, as well as a few Elite here and there—along with fallen marines.

"Your sacrifice will not have been in vain," Master Chief said, as he passed by the corpses that littered the floor.

"Worry less about them, and more about yourself for the moment, Chief," Cortana said. We can avenge their deaths later. Right now, your armor needs desperate repairs…"

__

Energy Level: 10%

Shield Strength: 55% - Charging.

Active Camouflage: Inactive [Insufficient Energy]

WARNING: System repairs incomplete!

Armament(s):

3 Plasma Grenade(s)

2 Fragmentation Grenade(s)

"Agreed," Master Chief replied.

"Less than fifty meters to engineering, Chief," Cortana said.

"Understood," Master Chief answered, "Picking up any life-signs in there?"

"Negative. There are no—wait a minute, yes… there is a single bio-signature in main engineering. I'll mark it off as another NAV point."

With that, another NAV point flickered onto Master Chief's HUD.

"Any idea as to what it is?"

"Negative," Cortana replied, "With all of the radiation that's leaking out of the Autumn's FTL drive, there's too much interference to tell."

"So let's be on the safe side," Master Chief said, brandishing his assault rifle. He trained it on the door and stepped forward—nothing.

"Cortana?"

"Power throughout this deck has been eliminated. We'll need to break down the door."

"More grunt work," Master Chief replied, "What am I, the military workhorse?"

"Oh quit complaining," Cortana replied, "And break down the damned door."

"Yes, ma'am," Master Chief answered, ramming into the door with all of his strength.

Inside the room, there were consoles that were devoid of any animation whatsoever. Parts of conduit and artificial gravity plating were all over the place. And in the corner, something was huddling in the shadows. As he moved closer, Master Chief saw what it was: a severely bruised and battered Covenant Grunt.

"What the hell are you doing here, worm?" Master Chief asked, aiming his rifle at the head of the Grunt.

"I won't tell you a thing, human!" the Grunt said, raising it's hand to it's breathing mask—it was about to yank the tube.

"Don't even think about it," Master Chief said, moving in closer to the Grunt, "Or I'll break your neck."

The Grunt was too terrified by the Chief to realize that it would be dead either way, so it lowered its hand back down to its side.

"I want for you to tell me what the hell you're doing on this ship," Master Chief ordered, "And I want you to do it now."

The Grunt just stared at the Chief, "Ha! Do you actually think that I have to tell you anything, cyborg?"

"It looks to me like you don't have much of a choice," Master Chief replied.

"Oh?" the Grunt asked, raising its hand back to the breathing mask.

"You know," Master Chief started, "There are fates worse than death…"

The Grunt looked at the Chief, "You don't scare me. What I do is for the gods!"

With that, it yanked the tube from its breathing mask, releasing methane into the air, and killing the Grunt.

"God damn it," Master Chief sighed, "Why in the hell do they do that?"

"Apparently," Cortana replied, "Religious worship blinds them from true objectivity."

"Apparently." Master Chief answered, kneeling next to the Grunt's corpse.

"Now this," Master Chief started, "Will come in handy."

He picked up the fuel-rod cannon that the Grunt had been carrying, and holstered his assault rifle in the clip on his back.

"Chief, are you insane?" Cortana asked, "We don't have the slightest idea on how to use one of those weapons! You could kill yourself!"

Master Chief raised the weapon parallel to the floor, and aimed for one of the bulkheads. Momentarily, the weapon began to glow with a fierce greenish hue, and then it discharged its deadly load, melting the bulkhead away with extreme hostility.

"We know how to use it now…" Master Chief said, with a smirk.

"You're such a child at times," Cortana sighed, "But then again, I guess that's what Dr. Halsey saw in you…"

"S'pose so," Master Chief said, "But that's behind us now… How do we go about restoring power to this deck?"

"We need to get to the main power core," Cortana replied.

"Which is where?"

"Two decks down, and four sections forward of our present location."

"NAV point?" Master Chief asked.

"My pleasure," Cortana replied.

A new NAV point appeared on the Chief's HUD, "Well, lets not waste any time," Master Chief said, as he began to run toward the NAV point. He started to close in on a wall, and didn't show any signs of slowing.

"Um, Chief," Cortana started, "Look out for that wall!"

But the Chief had already took that into consideration, and blasted through it with the fuel-rod cannon, and repeated the process with the next two bulkheads that stood in his way.

"You know," Cortana said, "You may eventually compromise structural integrity if you keep this up…"

"I'm pretty sure that the Autumn'll survive my meager beatings," the Chief replied, "Considering that she's stood up to the beating of countless Covenant battleships."

"External beatings, Chief," Cortana started, "We don't have the same reinforcements on the inside… Knowing our luck, the Autumn'll probably implode in herself."

"Ever the optimist," Master Chief said, clearing the fourth and final bulkhead.

"Optimism will only get you so far… It's realism that I do well," Cortana replied.

"Well, realism is all good and fine, but… optimism has its advantages," Master Chief answered, as he pulled out a fragmentation grenade, and set the fuse for thirty seconds. He laid it on the floor, and ran for cover behind a bulkhead.

Ten seconds later, footsteps could be heard coming down the corridor. Could it be a marine? A Covenant? …Or even worse, could it possibly be one of the Flood?

"Huh? Grenaaaaade!" a shrill voice called out, followed by the unmistakable scream of a Covenant Grunt.

"Damned idiot," Master Chief said, obviously disgusted with the Grunt. Master Chief peeked around the corner, and watched as the Grunt ran circles around the grenade on the floor. Eventually, it gained the attention of an Elite, who came to investigate what the Grunt was doing. It looked in closer at the object until it realized what it was looking at.

"Noooooooooooooooooo!" the Elite yelled, running down the corridor toward the Chief, followed closely by the Grunt.

But it was too late—the grenade detonated, sending the Grunt flying into the Elite, snapping its spine. Both were killed instantaneously, and went flying past the Chief, who quickly ran toward the opening in the floor and jumped through. However, when he hit the floor, he quickly realized that he should have checked his motion tracker first, as surrounding him was a room full of black ops Grunt, sleeping, but armed with fuel-rod cannons. And the Chief was about to lose his balance…


	11. Farewell...

****

Author's Note

Sorry for taking so long to get this chapter written and posted, but I've been going through some rather hectic times during the past few months, and I needed to get some things sorted out. Luckily though, I've managed to get past my damned SAT's, and, whether or not I did well on them remains to be seen. In any event, I'd like to thank my friends for staying with me through my somewhat turbulent mood-swings, and to my better friends for providing me with the necessary extra support to get through those damned months that are now (thankfully) behind me. And also, before I go on, I just want you guys to know that I have no idea where I left off in my story, except that MC had fallen into a room full of spec-ops Grunt, so I'll have to go back and skim through chapter… ten. All right. Got it… With any luck, this won't suck too badly… Anyway, here goes…

****

MJOLNIR Quirks – Chapter Eleven: Farewell

"Chieeeeeef!" Cortana yelled as they started falling toward one of the sleeping Grunt.

"Huh?" one of the Grunts asked, slowly lifting its head into the air, "Cyborg! Wake up! Wake up! Cyborg!"

"God damn it," Master Chief said, pulling out one of his remaining fragmentation grenades.

"Chief, are you insane? That's the Autumn's reactor core! One wrongly placed explosion, and we're all goners!"

"Your concern is duly noted, Cortana, but I know what I'm doing."

And with that, Master Chief activated and chucked the grenade straight at the Grunt, and lodged it in between the plates of its armor. And, as the chief expected, the Grunt went fleeing around the room, with the grenade's pre-detonation warning clicks rapidly blazing.

"Three… two… one…"

Bawoooooooooom! The grenade exploded, killing four of the Grunts, and sending a shockwave throughout the room, causing all of the other Grunts to fall to the floor—their fuel-rod cannons being discharged at random intervals.

"Oh, damn," Master Chief sighed, "Hadn't counted on that…"

He and Cortana watched helplessly as one of the fuel-rod charges flew into the air, and then started to fall toward the reactor. It hit with a sickening plop of melting alloys, and then disappeared within the bowels of the core.

Everyone in the room—the Grunts and the Chief—sat, waiting to see what was going to happen. Two minutes passed, and then three. Nothing.

"Alright, Grunts, time to die," Master Chief said aloud, breaking the silence.

"Warning. Core overload. Total reactor melt-down in fifteen minutes." With that, the Grunts all started screaming, and scattered from the room, tossing their firearms to the floor.

"…I know what I'm doing…" Cortana said in a mock-tone, "Damn it chief, what the hell have you done?"

"Hey, I said that I knew what _I_ was doing. That didn't necessarily imply that I knew that all THIS was going to happen…"

"Jesus," Cortana sighed, "Alright, we don't have time for this. We can't allow the Autumn to be obliterated. She's still extremely invaluable to us at the moment."

"So what are we supposed to do?"

"We need to eject the core, and get it as far from here as possible."

"Eject the core?" Master Chief asked, "Has that ever been done before?"

"It's never been necessary before," Cortana replied, "But desperate times call for desperate measures."

"That's reassuring," Master Chief answered, trading his spent fuel-rod cannon for a relatively charged one, "So how do we go about doing that?"

"We'll need access to the primary engineering terminal."

"Which is… where?"

"Deck forty-two alpha," Cortana replied, "Which means that we've got quite the stroll ahead of us, with absolutely no margin of error. Get going, Chief!"

With that, Cortana flickered on a new NAV point to Master Chief's HUD, and they were off. Master Chief looked at the rest of his HUD to make sure that he was prepared for any… distractions along the way…

__

Energy Level: 9%

Shield Strength: 68% (Charging)

Active Camouflage – Inactive [Insufficient Energy]

WARNING: System repairs incomplete!

Armament(s):

3 Plasma Grenade(s)

1 Fragmentation Grenade(s)

"Energy levels are still dropping," Master Chief said, pointing out the obvious to make idle conversation.

"Well, it won't be a problem if we can stop the Autumn from destroying herself."

Master Chief started to quicken his pace toward his destination. He didn't like the thought of his armor failing on him, leaving him vulnerable to the outside world.

"Chief, I know what you're thinking—don't worry, we'll make it," Cortana said, reassuring him.

"Yeah, I know we will," Master Chief replied, a small smile showing itself on his face.

__

NAV Distance: 50 Meters

"Almost there," Cortana said, "Just keep going…"

Master Chief nodded, and hurried toward the NAV point, and saw it: the primary engineering terminal. Unfortunately, there was still no power to any of the ship.

"Alright," Cortana started, "We're only going to have one shot at this. You'll need to remove your power cell from the MJOLNIR armor, and attach it to the secondary power relay on the top right hand corner of the terminal."

"Check," Master Chief replied.

"Well, good luck, Chief. And I'll see you when this whole thing is through, so long as you do it in less than six hours."

"Six hours?"

"Six hours is the maximum amount of time that I can remain within the crystalline AI structure before my matrix begins to degrade. After that time, I can't guarantee that I'll be able to function."

"In that case," Master Chief replied, "See you in less than six hours."

With that, he yanked his power cell, and for the first time in quite a while, felt the full burden of his armor. It was like carrying around a small car all over your body. He didn't have time to complain though—he needed to eject the core in less than…

"Warning. Core overload. Total reactor melt-down in five minutes."

Five minutes. Five minutes was all that he had to eject the core AND get it as far from the Autumn as he possibly could. He quickly thrust the power cell into the secondary relay of the terminal, and watched as it slowly flickered to life. The onscreen options were relatively straightforward, and he eventually keyed in the sequence to eject the core, before the power cell completely died. Without thinking, he began to run quickly back for the reactor core room.

"Cyborg! Bad Cyborg!" a Grunt yelled, making itself visible out of the shadows.

"I don't have the time for this, damn it!" Master Chief yelled, slapping an active plasma grenade on the Grunt's chest, and continuing to run for the core room.

"Aiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeee!" the Grunt yelled, running down the corridor that it'd just come from. The screams of countless other Grunts emerged from within the corridor as well

Bawoooooooooooooooooom! The explosion sent a few Grunts flying out of the corridor, as well as a plasma sabre, attached to a severed arm, from an Elite. Moments later, Master Chief was in the core room. He looked at the readout on the ejected core, and saw that he had two minutes before it went critical. He grabbed it, and started to run back for the hangar where the Longsword interceptor was docked. He unscrewed the casing of the SHIVA nuke, and gently placed the core within it, and then replaced the casing. He powered up the engines, and set off for the Truth and Reconciliation.

By his estimates, he had approximately one minute to get rid of the core before it detonated—and there she was: the Truth and Reconciliation: the one Covenant stronghold on HALO. Traditionally, there'd be no way to get anything through a Covenant ship's shielding, but fortunately for Master Chief, ever since the Covenant had arrived on HALO, the Truth and Reconciliation had been in a state of perpetual cargo transfer between the ship and the surface of HALO, which meant that the shields were down. He used the booster tanks aboard the Longsword to get in closer to the Truth and Reconciliation.

"Forgive me, sir," Master Chief said, approaching firing range for the SHIVA nuke.

Without another thought, he fired the warhead, and pulled up at a right angle, and head for HALO's atmospheric boundaries—there was no other way to be sure that he'd be safe from the blast radius of the combined yield of both the most powerful nuclear device in the UNSC arsenal, as well as a Halcyon-class reactor core. He broke the atmosphere just as the warhead impacted with the Covenant hull. The explosion was instant, as was the shockwave, which was sent through the entire length of the HALO installation. Master Chief cut the engines, and looked back down on the ring, surveying the damage.

He yanked the AI containment unit that housed Cortana's program, and inserted it into the holopanel in the primary control panel of the ship. Cortana's figure fizzled into view.

"Chief? Ha! You see, I told you that we c…"

The instant she saw HALO, she knew that Master Chief had done something more than she'd expected.

Her face was expressionless as she gazed at the ring, whose surface now resembled that of a charred and desolate magma world.

"Christ, Chief," Cortana started, "What the hell do we do now?"

"We look for survivors," Master Chief replied, "And hope for the best."


End file.
